2017 Department News

Applications are now open for McMaster University's Summer 2018 NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRAs). These prestigious research positions allow exceptional undergraduates to perform a fully-funded 16 week research project with a professor over the summer. Students from all Canadian universities are eligible and are encouraged to apply. For more information and a list of available projects, please click here.

Another successful Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference has come and gone. This annual conference brings together about 150 of the top undergraduate physics students from across Canada to present summer research, meet peers, network, and much more. The 2017 version took place at Carleton University in Ottawa. McMaster was well represented at the conference. As usual, all McMaster attendees gave incredible presentations and made our school proud. 6 students in particular were able to come away with medals for top talks in their respective presentation categories:

Adree Khondker - 2nd Place, Biological & Medical Physics

Christian DiMaria - 1st Place, Applied & Engineering Physics

Cissy Suen - 1st Place, Quantum & Solid State Physics

Dana Murdoch - 3rd Place, Astrophysics & Cosmology

Karan Chowdhry - 2nd Place, Quantum & Solid State Physics

Leanne Dias - 3rd Place, Applied & Engineering Physics

Congratulations to the award winners along with all of our attendees! We look forward to another successful conference next year.

Many of us look forward to October 31, that special day when all things dark and mysterious come out from hiding. That day is called...

...Dark Matter Day! Yes, Dark Matter Day is this Tuesday, October 31. Dark matter itself probably won't reveal its true nature to us on this day, but there are many dark matter events happening around the world to celebrate this historic hunt for the unseen. More information on various global, regional and local events, including how to get involved, can be found at the official Dark Matter Day website.

Each year the physics department holds a Graduate Student Symposium Day where graduate students who have just completed their first year of studies present their research. Talks were given on a wide range of interesting topics and as usual all of the talks were excellent. Prizes were awarded to the top three presenters - in no particular order: